THE NORTHERN IRELAND CONFLICT History of The Troubles Hearing about the Conflict in Northern Ireland in the media it mainly seems to be a sectarian disagreement between the Catholic and Protestant denomination. But having a closer look to the country s history you will face the fact of the steady supremacy of Great Britain. And of course it s obvious that this couldn t go well for a long period of time. It all started with the Anglo-Norman invasion in 1171 when the Normans gained control of a huge part of the Irish island. Few hundred years later in 1541 the English monarch Henry VIII declared himself King of Ireland. With his attempt to convert the Catholic Irish he started up the religious conflict whereas the invasion and settlement was the origin of the conflict between the Irish and the English people. Most of the settlers and Irishmen maintained their Catholic faith, the English in contrary became Protestant. Henry s successor James carried out the so-called Ulster Plantation, in which the North Eastern part of Ireland was with a particular aim in mind settled by mainly Protestant British and Scottish people. Ulster used to be a province that consisted of nine counties. The Irish population suffered a lot under the supremacy of the English Crown. According to their unfair treatment and discrimination many rebellions followed. Many were brought down with plenty of bloodshed but only few ended successfully for the disadvantaged Irish population. In 1689 William the Orange defeated for example Irish rebels that were fighting for independence and returned the city of Derry, which the Irish had occupied few years before, to the British Protestants. The discrimination against the Catholic population went on and after the victory of William the Orange things even turned out to become worse for the Catholics: The Penal Laws were introduced and led to a tremendous limitation of rights of the Catholics. Their church services were prohibited. And they determined that Catholics were not allowed to run for public departments, to found schools, to teach, to carry weapons and to buy or inherit land either. That way their properties were confiscated step by step by the Protestants. After another rebellion the Act of Union abolished the already restricted right to a say of the Catholics in 1800 by dissolving the Irish Parliament. Now Ireland was under direct reign of Britain. file:///c /Dokumente%20und%20Einstellungen/Michae...0to%20do/10_10_05/THENORTHERNIRELANDCONFLICT.html (1 of 8)23.02.2006 13:31:18
Famines caused lots of harm in all of Europe in the middle of the 19 th century yet Ireland was hurt the most as it was totally dependent on potatoes as their staple food. But their harvest was nearly completely destroyed by the potato blight. England resisted to provide help and thus about one million people died. Due to their hopeless situation many radical nationalist organizations that fought against the English occupation were found. Yet their attempts frequently failed. During 1875-89 Charles Stewart Parnell stood up in the British Parliament for the Home Rule issue. He demanded independence from Britain and claimed that the land, that had been violently taken from the Catholic population, to be returned. In the end the Home Rule Bill was passed years later in 1914 but it could not come into force because of the outbreak of World War I. Due to this Bill there was resistance from the Northern Protestants that wanted to maintain the union with Great Britain. After many unsuccessful attempts to gain independence from GB a severe rebellion in 1916 led to a civil war. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) started a Guerilla warfare on the British. It has to be mentioned that to these times IRA was still legal. It gradually radicalised and was finally prohibited in 1936. The so-called Anglo-Irish-War lasted from 1919 to 1921 and as a result the Contract of Independence was signed. Independence, however, was only achieved by the division of Ireland in 1921 as the Protestant North decided by referendum to remain in a political union with Great Britain. The former 32 counties were now portioned into 26 counties that formed the Irish Free State and 6 counties with a majority of Protestant inhabitants that were now acknowledged as Northern Ireland. Belfast was appointed capital of the new state, which was also called Ulster. Northern Ireland was granted an own Parliament, which provided the wide opportunity of selfadministration and autonomy. Rather peaceful decades followed and rebellious actions of the IRA retreated. Yet the Catholic minority was still discriminated against. The Catholics were ignored and disadvantaged in political matters. According to the electoral law the votes of the rather poor Catholic population didn t have an appropriate influence whereas the Protestant employers votes were favoured. It s an electoral law similar to the one in America where the winner gets it all. Constituencies were even manipulated to support a result that preferred Protestant intentions. But not only were the Catholics disadvantaged in political matters but also in housing and employment. On an average 36% of the Catholic inhabitants of Derry are unemployed whereas only 14% of the Protestants are out of work. Thus the aim of the protests was to demand a legislation that provides equal job opportunities and to control the sectarian composition of the workforce. Due to the unfair treatment of the minority the Catholics founded the NICRA in 1967, which file:///c /Dokumente%20und%20Einstellungen/Michae...0to%20do/10_10_05/THENORTHERNIRELANDCONFLICT.html (2 of 8)23.02.2006 13:31:18
stands for Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association. They demanded equal rights for both the Protestant and Catholic population. They intended to only raise attention with peaceful demonstrations without any use of violence. The second pacific protest in Derry (which the Protestants call Londonderry), however, was violently ended by the Protestant police. This event made the IRA after about 40 years of ceasefire awake to new life and a period of violence was launched. In 1969 another Civil War began: after the Protestant police had ended a prohibited yet peaceful protest of the Civil Rights Movement the Catholics led a street battle against the police over few days. The situation escalated and British troops had to intervene as riots led Protestants to burn Catholics out of their homes and shoot them on the streets of Belfast. Now it was the troops duty to fight the steady terror. Within three years the amount of soldiers was increased from 2.000 to 21.000 soldiers, who first had been welcome by the Catholic population. After several months, however, their friendly attitude had turned to violence. To give you a better impression of the situation there I have a transparency. (Panzer auf Straße..) On 9 August 1971 the then Prime Minister of Northern Ireland allowed the internment without trail of suspicious people and within hours about 300 men were arrested. Many of them had never been involved in any terrorist group or action. One third was released during the following day. As the internment was almost only used against the Catholic people it got severe riots going. Shooting broke out and Belfast and spread quickly to other big cities. Up to the day of the allowance of the internment 34 people had died in riots but only within three days after that event 22 more casualties had to be recorded. During the internment many of those who were arrested were treated in inhuman ways, also including torture. In 1972 the Parliament in London decided to remove the Northern Irish Parliament in Belfast and put it again under its direct rule. 30 January 1972 made history through the famous riot called Bloody Sunday that took place in Derry. During a not approved march through the city, people protested against internment and against the ban on the right to march. The protesters sought to make sure that no violence was involved in the march and asked the IRA to withdraw from it. During the march soldiers opened fire on the crowd and shot 13 random, unarmed civilians dead. A further victim died later due to its wounds. The soldiers affirmed that they only defended themselves as they had been attacked first. But no evidence for their claim was found and Derry s mayor was of the opinion that it was sheer unadulterated murder. Yet investigations officially confirmed that the soldiers were acting in a proper way. Plenty of bombings of the IRA followed and many people were killed. It seemed as if the IRA did not stop at anything to realize their goal to remove British forces from Northern Ireland and unify Ireland again. file:///c /Dokumente%20und%20Einstellungen/Michae...0to%20do/10_10_05/THENORTHERNIRELANDCONFLICT.html (3 of 8)23.02.2006 13:31:18
In 1994 the party of Sinn Féin, which is supposed to be the political arm of the IRA, proclaimed a unilateral ceasefire. This proclamation was broken two only years later. Not only was the IRA involved in bombings in the United Kingdom but also in Germany when they attacked British military institutions. In 1996 during the European Football Championship a bomb in the city centre of Manchester detonated, too. In March 1998 the Good Friday Agreement was signed as a result of peace talks between the British Prime Minister, Ireland s counterpart Bertie Ahern and the Northern Irish government. The agreement was approved by the people s majority both in Great Britain and in the Republic of Ireland by referendum. With the agreement Ireland also denied any claims to the reintegration of Northern Ireland and thus changed its constitution. But only after further peace talks in 2001 the progress made a huge step towards peace. As terrorist activities have retreated the conflict has fallen into oblivion over the last years a bit. You don t often hear anything about the current situation and even if you ask people that live in Ireland they say that you are not really confronted with it very often. I ve read an article recently that said that the activities of the IRA have gone back a lot but that there is no sign that it was about to dissolve. Whereas the radical Protestant activities have increased and that 2 people were killed recently. This shows that there are still paramilitary actions going on but that it is hardly shown on TV not even in Ireland itself. But when you head farther North you notice little things that might seem a bit strange for Germans in general as we are not used to a lot of patriotism in our culture. So when you are in Belfast for example you won t find any lockers where you could put your luggage in train stations or airports. This was introduced to prevent that no bombs can be placed there. There are even taxis that are only for Protestants and separate ones for Catholics. And there are schools that are separated into the different denominations. As a last impression that I want to give you I have two charts to show you. Summary of Status of the person killed: Summary of Organisation responsible for the death: Status_Summary Count Organisation_Summary Count British Security 1111 British Security 363 Civilian 1857 Irish Security 5 Irish Security 10 Loyalist Paramilitary 1020 Loyalist Paramilitary 151 not known 80 Republican Paramilitary 394 Republican Paramilitary 2055 file:///c /Dokumente%20und%20Einstellungen/Michae...0to%20do/10_10_05/THENORTHERNIRELANDCONFLICT.html (4 of 8)23.02.2006 13:31:18
TOTAL 3523 TOTAL 3523 But in the Northern Ireland Conflict I think you can t tell whose fault it is in the end as the violence is mutual. Both sides commit crimes and have to suffer injustice so it s very hard to draw a conclusion. Two contrasting kinds of view The denominations represent the population s background that arouses certain patriotic feelings. Catholics immediately refer to their true Irish roots whereas the Protestant faith is nearly synonymous with the emotional connection to Great Britain. Throughout history these two different points of view were created. Animosities between the Catholics and Protestants were growing throughout history. But is it really about denominations? Or might it be rather a colonial conflict between GB and Ireland. Ireland could be considered as Britain s first colony. What do Catholics pursue Catholics have always seen the British in their own country as a threat, as a force of occupation. They were suffering from the discrimination and preferential treatment of the British for several hundred years and no longer want to be told what they should be doing. They demand equal rights for Catholic and Protestant population. The sectarian disadvantaging in housing and employment or other areas of public life should not exist anymore. Catholics want to have the opportunity to be represented in politics and not be disadvantaged because of unequal constituencies. Several support the IRA and its aims to liberate Northern Ireland from Britain s supremacy and unify the Republic of Ireland and break with Great Britain. Some are even of the opinion that the fight for unity justifies the many victims it takes to reach this goal. I can remember some reports on the news about the situation in Ireland when I was younger. There was the possibility to see the results of riots and the attempts of the IRA. I have pictures in mind that showed angry people attacking each other and missiles being sent through the air. You could observe all the anger that has been built up vent through the riots. Other means of the IRA to draw attention to their goals were ambushing security forces or placing bombs inside of cars and letting them detonate near places where mainly British soldiers went. Another way were the hunger strikes of detained IRA terrorists. When they finally died of starvation they were recognised as martyrs and provoked new violence when their fellows were convinced they had to take revenge on their enemies. file:///c /Dokumente%20und%20Einstellungen/Michae...0to%20do/10_10_05/THENORTHERNIRELANDCONFLICT.html (5 of 8)23.02.2006 13:31:18
But there is not only an extremist Catholic side but also an extremist Protestant way of thinking. They justify their counter-attacks and say that they don t want to give in to the terrorist attacks of the IRA. They feel they are in the right position as the whole world condemns the violent and bloody attacks. Protestants want the British troops to stay in Northern Ireland so that they can fight the violence. Some also have the opinion that Northern Ireland is actually British as their ancestors the Scottish or English planters lived there since the 17 th century. And so they say they have the right to live in their homeland, as well. What solutions to the conflict could be found? I think we all agree that the vicious circle of violence must be broken. One group has to do the start to not counter-attack violence with violence. But it s not only about the violent actions of the different groups but also the area of social issues need to be improved: -to prevent the discrimination in employment e.g. a quota system could be introduced that makes sure that a fair amount of Catholic people is employed, too -policy should try to find a way to both satisfy the requests of the IRA as well as the ones of the population that favours the British -another possibility was to give the parts of Northern Ireland with a majority of people that dislike the British presence in their country an opportunity to join the Republic of Ireland -or Northern Ireland could be reunited with the Republic again and make sure that there are equal rights for both the Catholic and the Protestant majority -to reduce the presence of British troops and send UN troops to keep the situation under control -and finally you could think of dividing Northern Ireland completely from the United Kingdom and create and independent state But as the peace process has already made great progress I hope the situation will keep on improving. I assume it will take some time to change the thinking of the people. The idea of thinking in categories, the thinking of us the Catholics and those the Protestants has to be removed. NORTHERN IRELAND CONFLICT - HANDOUT Historic important events 1171 Normans invade Ireland and gain control file:///c /Dokumente%20und%20Einstellungen/Michae...0to%20do/10_10_05/THENORTHERNIRELANDCONFLICT.html (6 of 8)23.02.2006 13:31:18
English domination 1541 English monarch Henry VII declares himself King of Ireland tries to convert the Catholic Irish to Protestant faith centuries of oppression of the Irish population follow Ulster Plantation Protestant British and Scottish people are settled in the North Eastern part of Ireland 1689 William the Orange massacres the Irish to take revenge for a former rebellion Penal Laws prohibit Irishmen to run for public departments, to hold church services to buy or inherit land, to teach, to carry weapons etc.... 1914 Home Rule Bill is passed yet Northern Protestants that are loyal to Great Britain resist this bill 1916 rebellion (Easter Uprising) leads to civil war 1919-1921 Anglo-Irish-War leads to Contract of Independence separation of Ireland: 26 counties from the independent Irish Free State, capital: Dublin 6 North Eastern counties form Northern Ireland (Ulster), capital: Belfast -peaceful decades follow, yet discrimination against Catholic population in Ulster increases 1967 NICRA (Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association) is founded peacefully demand equal rights for both Catholic and Protestant population their demonstrations are violently ended by the mainly Protestant police IRA (Irish Republican Army) launches period of violence: bombings, shootings... 1972 January 30, (London)Derry: British soldiers shoot 13 unarmed civilians during peaceful march dead famous as Bloody Sunday 1998 Good Friday Agreement is signed as a result of peace talks Ireland denies claims to reintegrate Northern Ireland 2001 only now the IRA starts to disarm up to 2004 no further bombings of the IRA have followed; situation has calmed down Catholics... -...don t want to suffer from British supremacy and don t want to be told what to do anymore -...demand equal rights and resent being discriminated against in housing, employment... -...support the IRA s aim to force the British out of Ireland and reunify Ireland again Protestants... file:///c /Dokumente%20und%20Einstellungen/Michae...0to%20do/10_10_05/THENORTHERNIRELANDCONFLICT.html (7 of 8)23.02.2006 13:31:18
-...want to remain in political union with Great Britain -...fear to be discriminated against when Northern Ireland was reunited with the Republic Some possible solutions -reunification of Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland and equal rights for both Protestant and Catholics -foundation of an independent Northern Irish state -introduction of quota system o prevent discrimination in employment -replacement of British troops by UN troops to keep the situation under control file:///c /Dokumente%20und%20Einstellungen/Michae...0to%20do/10_10_05/THENORTHERNIRELANDCONFLICT.html (8 of 8)23.02.2006 13:31:18